Shown but not Said
by BlackRose108
Summary: Katara wants to tell Aang what feelings haunt her the night before battle, but first she has to figure them out for herself. Will one night be enough? Kataang


**Where this came from I'm really not sure but I hope it turns out the way I want it to. Basically this is just one of those Kataangy "the night before the battle" stories. **

**Just stuff you need to know before you read it though: Aang has already confessed to Katara but she has told him that they can't be together. Aang still vows to still love her, though. And, yes, this is after that kiss in the trailer, so you can use your imagination. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar**

Shown but not Said

She was uneasy, she couldn't get the thought of him out of her mind. The thought of him fighting the fire lord, the thought of all the fire surrounding, and his scream, a sound of the purest terror that raked her ears to insanity.

"Aang," she whispered, opening her eyes from the horrific nightmares and swung her legs over her bed side, taking deep, long breathes. She knew what this was about. It wasn't just about him fighting the next day, it was about that kiss, that kiss that happened almost two weeks ago but haunted her. But was it the kiss that ghosted her thoughts or the look of his face, pain stricken after she uttered the words she wished never left her lips.

"_We can't be together Aang. You have your duty and I have mine, and that doesn't call for us being more than what we are……more than friends. We can't, I'm sorry"_

That's how she left him, to bask in his misery as she ran across the sand, crying for her very stupidity. Why had she rejected him? Anyone could tell what she had said was all staged, written and planned, but what did she really want to say? She only wish she knew.

So that night she went to the Avatar's room. It was the same as hers, just a giant window out looking from the foot of his bed, it had a lovely view of the beach before them. But that night it only illuminated the young Avatar's sleeping form. Bathing him in a hue of blues and whites.

Katara smiled fondly at the air bender before her. He looked so young that night, so innocent. At times like these she felt a motherly instinct toward him, to just love him as a mother would. But not this night. She felt something, but much to her disliking, it wasn't the urge to mother.

She sat on his bed side, it was certainly big enough for her to probably sleep in the same bed as him and he not even notice. But her motive wasn't to be sneaky, it was to enjoy her last time with him, and that wasn't going to happen with him asleep. She shook his shoulder lightly, coaxing him to awaken.

"Hmmm?" he mumbled, she could hear the exhaustion in his voice. She knew it was wrong of her to wake in up, but she felt the need to keep him awake until something happen, maybe that something she felt right then and there. "Katara?" he questioned once his eyes were open enough to see the water bender on his bed side.

"Hi, Aang," she waved wistfully, Aang raising a brow and propped himself up on his elbows.

"What's wrong?" He asked, rubbing his eye to get the sand out. "You must have a good reason for waking me up like this." He added the last part rather bitterly. He had been doing which to her every now and then since their last time alone, which just happened to be the night Katara rejected him.

"I just wanted to know if you……" She breathed heavily when Aang's brow crept up higher.

"Look Aang, I just want you to know that I'm going to be here for you whenever you need me, for any problem, okay?" She placed a hand on his shoulder, feeling foolish for waking him up to say something he already knew, and yet, still an urge tugged at her chest.

"That's all?" Aang asked, not sounding bitter just a little disappointed. Katara shook her head but gave no sign that she was going to continue. "So what else is there," he pressed, trying to get whatever she was trying to say out of her.

"It's really a long story, Aang, I just have a lot of thoughts running through my head at once, and it's confusing to put them all together." She exhaled, suddenly out of breath.

"Okay," Aang looked around a bit, trying to figure out how to help her. "Well just tell me everything, I don't care if it's confusing, you need to get it out to someone." Was what he finally settled on. Katara just merely nodded, crossing her arms over her chest and let them move with its heaving motion.

"I'm afraid," she started, closing her eyes. When he looked at her like that she couldn't put her thoughts together. "I'm afraid of losing you. But I'm also worried that I already have, and I can't get that conversation we had two weeks ago out of my head!" She calmed down a bit, letting in blood simmer down.

"So," Aang trailed, not knowing what the right questions would be in his situation. "You haven't lost me Katara, I still love you." He assured her.

"You see that's just it!" She exclaimed, waving her arms up. "That right there, when you tell me you love me in that voice it drives me crazy!"

"Well, what do you want me to do? I love you Katara and I'm not going to hide it anymore." He challenged her, and Katara let her arms drop limp, when she saw the look of utter seriousness on his face.

"I don't want you to hide, I just want to feel the same, but I don't even know what I feel towards you anymore!"

"Explain," Aang curled his fingers back and forth as if asking her to give him something.

"I can't explain it!" She protested. "It's just a whole mess of emotions that wash over me at different times that I can't even put together because they're so different!" She looked strait at him, his eyes playing with her heart so hard it almost physically hurt. "And when you look at me like that Aang, my heart, it almost screams for you." She was whispering for a reason unknown and before she knew it he pulled her against him, her face comfortably on his chest.

"Well, when you say things like that my heart screams for _you _Katara," he tightened his grip on her, Katara snuggling farther. He kissed her hair soundly. "I love you so much."

"Aang," she breathed, curling her fingers on his torso, as he slowly lifted her head with his fingers on her chin. They looked at each other intently, somehow having a whole conversation with their eyes, and soon his lips where on hers again for the third time they had known each other. The kiss was urgent and sweet all at once. Katara believed Aang was the only one who could make such a combination. But it was enough that when he broke free on her lips to trail her jaw line and neck she was out of breath, and out of words even though she knew now very well what she had been feeling.

So it was the next morning that she woke up, both tired and fully rested all at the same time to see him beside her, his head resting on her shoulder, his arms around her waist, and mumbling such loving words against her neck that made her wish that it wasn't _that _day of all days.

She nudged him softy. "Aang," she whispered. "Aang, wake up." His eyes fluttered open only to close again once the realization hit him. The fact that he was about to face his possible death that day, and the fact that still after everything that happened the previous night between him and Katara the words "I love you" had only been emitted by him.

"Katara-" he started, trying to give her one last chance to tell him. But she held up her hand, silencing him.

"You need to get ready," she told him, getting free from his grip only to have him tighten it.

"I'm not letting you leave," his eyes told her, shining with intensity. She still struggled to break loose, and when Aang saw that she wasn't going to talk he let her go, not even daring to cry in front of her, not now when he was suppose to be at his strongest.

She walked away giving him one last look.

"I'm sorry," her eyes said, and if they could have, softly. He just nodded.

"I love you," Aang said aloud as she shut the door.

"I-I" she mumbled behind the closed door, trying to let her thoughts escape but she couldn't find the key to the cage. Why was this so hard? Why couldn't she just say it?

She loved him.

And she hated herself for not telling him so.

**Okay that was actually worse than I thought. Sorry about the rushed, sad ending but I knew this was going to be a tear jerker (Although I'm sure no tears were jerked.) Not one of my best stroies but hopefully you'll still review anyway. **


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